Hopes abound for a deal on a “permanent ceasefire” with Houthi leaders by the end of April
A delegation representing Saudi Arabia and Oman is due to meet with the Houthi leadership in Sanaa next week to sign a permanent ceasefire ending the eight-year war in Yemen, several outlets have reported, citing officials familiar with the talks.
Sources told Reuters that an agreement could be announced by April 20, the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid-al Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan.
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg was in Muscat earlier this week, where he met with senior Omani and Houthi officials to discuss the peace process.
On Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition lifted its naval blockade of Yemen, allowing most ships to dock directly in Aden and other southern ports without stopping in Jeddah for security checks. The blockade was imposed in 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen on behalf of the government the Houthis had deposed.
Yemen peace talks intensify after Iran-Saudi deal
Read more Yemen peace talks intensify after Iran-Saudi deal
Meanwhile, the Lebanon-based outlet Al-Mayadeen reported that Riyadh had summoned leaders of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government on Friday, to brief them on the talks with the Houthis. Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman presented “the solution for a way out of the war on Yemen,” the outlet’s sources said.
According to Al-Mayadeen, the Saudi plan envisions extending the ceasefire by another year, followed by steps to reopen Yemeni ports. Riyadh is then expected to officially announce the end of the war and its intervention in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and the UN will subsequently sponsor talks between the Houthis and rival Yemeni factions, seeking a two-year transition period to establish a new government, reports have indicated.
The diplomatic breakthrough after eight years of fighting was made possible by last month’s agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to re-establish diplomatic relations, brokered by China.
According to UN estimates, the conflict in Yemen has claimed at least 377,000 lives, of which 150,000 were due to violence and the rest from starvation and disease. Another 4 million people have been displaced.
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
